Whenever curious people who often are Too Dumb to Live decide to poke at dangerous or mysterious objects with tree branches or sticks, there will often be dire consequences for their actions—most often, that means they die.
Why anybody would want to do such a thing can vary and, generally, isn't all too important. Perhaps somebody wants to see how something might respond to being poked. Maybe they have reason to believe that something is dead and looks extremely pokable. In all likelihood, someone is just a moronic Jerkass. Conceivably, any combination of these reasons and more could apply. All that matters is that, to no big surprise, some large animals or creatures or other fantastic entities just don't respond very well when poked with sticks, and the poker is certain to be viciously attacked, bitten, eaten, or otherwise come regret that they hadn't left things well and truly alone.
These stories are created for the good of the public in order to impart a valuable moral and life lesson, and that's to never go poking strange or dangerous things with sticks. No matter how tempting it may be, it's not worth risking your life over.
A specific subtrope of both Bullying a Dragon (messing with any being more powerful than oneself) and Curiosity Killed the Cast (where characters are punished for investigating anything ominous or dangerous).
See Also: Awakening the Sleeping Giant, Do Not Taunt Cthulhu.
Examples:
- Dumb Ways to Die: One of the "dumb ways to die" shown in the Public Service Announcement is the direct result of poking a stick at a grizzly bear. The grizzly bear bites the poker's "head" off.
- The Blob (1958): When a meteor crash lands in the mountains outside of town, a hermit is the first to discover it and pokes at it with a stick. Unfortunately, his poking cracks open the meteor, and his continual poking of the gelatinous globule at the center of it leads to the blob latching onto the stick and crawling onto the man's arm.
- The Blob (1988): When a small meteor crash lands in the mountains outside of town, a hermit investigates the pile of ooze that comes bubbling out by poking it with a stick. This backfires when the blob crawls its way up the stick and attaches itself to his arm to eat it.
- In the humorous poem "The Lion and Albert" by Marriott Edgar, the eponymous lion swallows the eponymous boy Albert whole, after Albert has poked him with a stick.
- Liv in the Future: The title character, Liv, ends up in the year 3000 after poking a portal in the sidewalk with a stick.
- Taylor Swift: Referenced metaphorically in the chorus of the song "Mad Woman" where she sings that "you'll poke that bear 'til her claws come out."
- In Final Fantasy XIV, the FATE "Curiosity Killed the Catfish" begins when a bunch of Namazu come across an automaton they've never seen before and start poking it with sticks to see if it'll move. Said automaton turns out to be a giant weapon that wakes up and begins vaporizing everything around it.
- Family Guy: Played With In the episode "Dammit Janet". In a Bait-and-Switch gag Peter, in Australia, repeatedly pokes a sleeping crocodile with his walking stick. When the croc finally opens its eyes and seems like its going to respond to all the poking, Peter is, instead, attacked out of nowhere by a koala bear.
